By Bob Hertzel
CHARLESTON — For most of this year in the universe in which he exists, which is a universe without many stars being known as Conference USA, Marshall’s Hassan Whiteside has been something of a defensive beast.
Through the season’s first 17 games, this 7-footer from Gastonia, N.C., blocked more shots than any player in Division I basketball, 95.
West Virginia University set out on Wednesday night in the Capital Classic to cut him down to size.
By halftime, Whiteside had to be feeling half his size, for sure, as the Mountaineers rotated one big man after another on him, trading altitude for attitude. If he wasn’t being pushed around by someone his own height, he was certainly being muscled by someone capable of leaning heavily upon him.
It was Wellington Smith and Cam Thoroughman and even the freshman Danny Jennings, whose muscles seem to have muscles, which is quite an attractive asset on a child that still has a whole lot of growing to do.
And so it was as this classic Classic that West Virginia would win with a late spurt ignited by its defense, 68-60, reached its midpoint, the high-flying Mr. Whiteside possessed all of two rebounds as the Mountaineers completely dominated the boards, 24-11, and only one block.
By the time it was over, we might add here, the domination on the backboards had extended to 43-26.
As the teams headed for their locker rooms, no one was talking about the shot Whiteside blocked, but the one he had blocked.
It transpired late in the half. Whiteside had been pacing back and forth on the baseline, trying to get in behind the Mountaineers. At one point he felt he had position and signaled a teammate with a subtle tic of the head that he wanted an alley-oop pass, but it never came.
Instead, he made a move and Thoroughman put a cross-body block on him and he went to the canvas, for an eight-count.
A disappointed look came across his face, but that was only momentary, for seconds later there was an opening and he went up with the ball, seemingly free to have his way with a thunderous dunk.
As he elevated, so, too, did John Flowers, soaring into the rafters and beyond. As high as Whiteside went, Flowers went higher and he stuffed Whiteside as the crowd oooowed, first for the dunk it expected, then ahhhhhed as the ball was rejected.
“I wasn’t guarding him then,” Flowers said. “I just sort of slid over on him. It was just a matter of reading the scouting report and seeing what he liked to do.”
The truth be known, at that very moment the game was decided, although Marshall would play on with heart and force the issue down the stretch, but they had found someone who could handle the intimidation factor upon which they had built a 15-2 record coming into the game.
“He’d been getting dunks and stuff in the paint,” Flowers would say after it was over.
He also, according to Flowers, had been doing his share of trash talking, which is fine with Flowers.
“He was saying things like, ‘They don’t want to guard me,’” Flowers recalled. “I like it when there’s trash talking. In fact, I like this game. The atmosphere, everything.”
Flowers wasn’t done with Mr. Whiteside yet either.
Oh, Whiteside did lead Marshall with 18 points scored, but of the shots he missed, three were credited to Flowers as blocks for there was another moment of truth in the second half when he blocked him on consecutive tries inside.
It wasn’t quite as spectacular a block, either one, but each was equally effective, keeping the ball from going into the basket. The first knocked the ball loose and Whiteside got it and went up again, Flowers were there to block it, perhaps just coming down from the first block.
It reached the point that Whiteside had to move to the outside, firing up a 3-point attempt, just his second of the season.
Wouldn’t you know it, Flowers wasn’t there to block that one.
“Funny thing was,” point guard Truck Bryant would say later, “after he hit that one he went up to Flowers and said something to him.”
Probably said something like “where were you on that one?”
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@homail.com.
